March 2011 saw the greatest number of Microsoft Tag scans ever, with a more than 50 percent increase on any previous month.

At the same time as Google seems to be giving up on QR codes (see QR codes dead?) Microsoft is seeing a surge in its multi-coloured version, Microsoft Tag, a free facility that allows you to create and scan 2D bar codes that use a grid of coloured triangles to encode data, see Microsoft Tag and Barcoding in Color for a full explanation.

Since the Tag service launched in January 2009 5 billion tags have been printed, 3 billion of them in the past six months. At the "receiving end" the number of scans per month has doubled over the past three months.

The publishing industry leads in Tag adoption with USA TODAY, Sports Illustrated Swimsuit and Woman’s Day being among those with recent campaigns that use the codes.

Google Code-in is a contest that introduces teenagers to the world of open source. It takes place entirely online and is open to students between 13 and 17. Now in its seventh year GCI runs until Janu [ ... ]